Surface emitting light sources, such as Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Lasers (VCSELs), typically have a light emitting area that is larger than the light emitting area of edge emitting laser diodes. Generally, VCSELs provide a cost effective solution for an optical telecommunication industry.
In consumer electronics industry, however, a lot need to be saved to meet its cost requirement. For example, packaging requirements for VCSELs integrated into consumer electronics (CE) devices, such as smart mobile devices are different from the packaging requirements for the VCSELs used in the telecommunication industry. Typically, the overall package size for CE devices reduces that requires further optimization to fit into a small form factor.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical surface emitting (SE) laser device packaging 100. As shown in FIG. 1, a SE laser device 103 on a substrate 102 is placed on a mounting board 101. SE device 103 emits light in a direction 104 away from the board 103. To integrate the SE laser 103 into the package, a ray optics lens system 106 including a prism and a lens is used. As shown in FIG. 1, optical system 106 is mounted over the laser device 103 to form about 90 degree angle bending 105 of the light to couple to a fiber 107.
That is, the current packaging solution uses a 90 degree bending light-pipe with a ray optic lens system to integrate a surface emitting (SE) laser device into a thin mobile device's package. This solution requires an expensive ray optic lens system design and manufacturing. Moreover, after the manufacturing, the current packaging solution requires a high cost precision alignment assembly.